These days, a website is one of the most potent marketing tools your business can have, and if it is not top quality, you risk losing customers. It is an enormous job,  one that many business owners find daunting and overwhelming. They may have one that isn’t particularly effective or haven’t bothered at all because of not knowing the impact it can have. Statewide Bearings launched brand new website recently, and it has prompted us to think about what it takes to start a brand new site successfully.

Choose your team

Are you going to be building and launching your website with an in-house team, or will you be outsourcing it? Both have their positives and their drawbacks. As we mentioned above, creating a site is a big task, and if you or your team don’t have those specific skills, you will probably want to invest in a third party web developer to do it for you. Before you settle on someone, you need to ask the following questions:

Once it has been developed, can you update the content on your own, or do you need to wait for them to do it?
What technical support, if any, will you receive for your website?
What measures does the designer have in place to protect your website from cyber criminals and hackers?

If the web developer is purely there to design the website, you may also need to look for someone who can handle your hosting, domain and content.

Develop a content strategy

There is little point in having a fabulous looking website if there is no content on there. Many businesses now have a blog section on their site, which lets them go into more detail, share the latest industry news or give their customers and clients a look behind the scenes. People will be coming back to read and check the website, and you need to make sure it is updated regularly with fresh and exciting content. Google now takes into account the level of interaction on a webpage, and when users regularly interact with content, it will help to push it higher in search engines.

However, content for content’s sake is not going to do you any favours. You need to ensure you have some sort of goal in mind: do you want to increase brand awareness or generate leads, or establish yourself as a leader and an expert within the industry? Bear these in mind as you create your content.

Understand SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and if you want your website to rank highly in Google and bring traffic, you need to understand it. SEO uses widely searched-for keywords, so if you want people to find your site, think about the words they would be searching for, and use them within your content. These keywords also need to be applied to images and titles. Again, if you don’t know much about it, it is a good idea to consult a professional who can guide you.